Onkyo PR-SC886P - any alternatives on the horizon?

[Blaumann]

Hi guys,
so i am thinking about getting the Onkyo PR-SC886P, as soon as street prices have reached a level i am willing to pay (about 1,000 Euros). I will not go much above that, so alternatives like the Marantz AV8003 probably aren't an option. Right now i have a temporary solution with a htpc and active speakers directly plugged into the analoge outs of the htpc. The setup is working fine, but i can't use other gear like a dedicated BD player this way. So getting a pre-amp is my no.1 priority for next year.

The Onkyo fits my needs almost perfectly:
- I have a setup with fully active speakers, so i don't need any kind of power-amps. Instead i just want a good dedicated pre-amp.
- Main focus will be home-theater and the internal decoding of the lossless codecs.
- Music, A/D conversions and video processing will not be very important.
- The balanced outs are great, my speakers have balanced ins. Perfect match.

Now my question is rather general. Dedicated pre-amps seem to be rather rare in a market dominated by receivers, especially in the relatively lower price regions of the Onkyo. Do you guys think, we'll see more dedicated "budget" HT pre-amps in 2009 or will they stay an "odditiy", reserved for the high-end? Personally i am not aware of any announcements in this area and i also don't think there is a big market for them. Just want to avoid pulling the trigger, only to find out there are a bunch of alternatives coming along just a few weeks later.

Any thoughts are appreciated.